How to build a B-24 in less than an hour.

[Garfly]

[farri]

Absolutely incredible! Thank you Garry.

[Garfly]

And these scenes from the feature film "Unbroken" graphically depict the B-24 in action in the Pacific theatre.

 

(Amazing sound track, too, if you can hook up to your hi-fi.)

 

The film was directed by Angelina Jolie and was filmed, and post-produced, in Australia.

 

It premiered in Sydney in 2014

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbroken_(film)

 

 

[M61A1]

If you enjoy those, you may enjoy this also....

 

[Garfly]

That on-location assembly method using the packing crates was ingenious.

 

(And to think that it took 50 men just to carry and hold up one wing)

 

While we're on the P-47:

 

[onetrack]

Those blokes wouldn't want to lose that handsaw, it's the most crucial component of the whole assembly system!

 

I'm amazed those crate designers didn't go a little further, and construct the crate so it could be re-assembled into an on-site hangar, complete with a wooden gantry crane!

 

And putting in 300 psi with a hand pump!! I reckon those blokes on the pump would have being pumping for a while, and wore out a few men!

[Garfly]

And, when you've built your B-24, this is how to drive it. (Also in less than an hour. ;-)

 

[Garfly]

And finally, some ideas on how to restore a B-24 (in less than a decade, with a bit of luck ;-)

 

 

 

[Garfly]

Oh, yeah, and when you do finish that job ...

(Okay, boomer, make way for the young ones ... As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be; world with a spectacular end, amen. LOL)

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Garfly

[JG3]

And these days the USA can't produce enough face masks when they need them......

[Garfly]

And we may as well throw in the Thunderbolt cinematic flight manual.

(always fascinating to see how Hollywood contributed to the war effort.)

 

[aleDF]

Excelente material fílmico... Gracias !!!

[Frankus1aust]

Great post. Interesting to note the factory was dedicated six months before Pearl Harbor. So someone in the administration was thinking ahead.

[facthunter]

Building the plane in less than an hour IS misleading. They turn them out at a rate of more than one an hour is an entirely different matter. Some parts might have been made months ago and the assembly commenced an equal time ago as well. It WAS a mass produced aeroplane with a total of over18,000 made. (over 8,000 by Ford) The capacity to produce large numbers of such items was the main reason the US ultimately determined the Victory for the Allied Forces. Similarly the large production of the solid but not high tech Russian tanks. Nev

[Garfly]

That was a joke Joyce!

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Great post. Interesting to note the factory was dedicated six months before Pearl Harbor. So someone in the administration was thinking ahead.

...and Americans still believe that the Pearl Harbour attack was a great surprise. Japan was pushed into a corner by America and the outcome was obvious.

[Garfly]

One of the clearest summaries I've seen, of the geo-politics leading to Pearl Harbour

(in less than 2 mins ;-) is at the start of this film about the Zero

 

[Old Koreelah]

One of the clearest summaries I've seen, of the geo-politics leading to Pearl Harbour

(in less than 2 mins ;-) is at the start of this film about the Zero

 

Excellent summary, Garfly.

Without excusing the fascist, militarist regimes of our enemies, I’ve long held the view that Australia’s Billy Hughes was a major cause of WWII. His was one of the strongest voices arguing for punishing the starving, defeated Germans with war reparations, while wiser leaders like Woodrow Wilson predicted that approach would lead to another war.

Hughes was intransigent in his opposition to the Japanese being treated as equal to westerners, despite all the help Japan gave to the allies in WWI. This led to the Japanese delegates walking out of the League of Nations.

 

Humiliated, Japan’s moderate government was propressively pushed aside (or murdered) by militarists, who knew their country could not earn respect without an empire of its own.

[onetrack]

The Americans were on a war footing in 1940. They were building new military aerodromes by the dozen, in that year. Many U.S. military leaders, and quite a few U.S. politicians were warning of a coming War with Japan in the late 1930's.

There was substantial funding allocated to military production and purchases in the U.S. from 1939 onwards

 

Congress passed a law banning the export of engineering equipment to the S.E. Asian region, that could be used by an enemy based there - in 1936. Specifically, the ban covered Motor (Road) Graders and other aerodrome-building equipment.

 

Caterpillar was badly affected by this export ban, and Australia was in the area included by Congress. As a result, we couldn't get American-built Motor Graders from 1936 onwards for our road works and public works projects.

 

This led to Waugh & Josephson, the NSW Caterpillar dealer, to visit Caterpillar headquarters to get permission to build Cat Motor Graders in Australia under licence. Caterpillar agreed, which was a world-first agreement for them, for the manufacture of any Caterpillar machine outside the U.S.

 

W&J built about 80% of the Caterpillar Motor Grader in their major engineering workshops (from Cat blueprints), and Caterpillar supplied the transmissions and engines to power them. W&J built around 500 Caterpillar Motor Graders under licence to Cat between 1936 and 1945, and their Cat Motor Grader production was an exceptionally vital part of our contribution to the War effort.

 

In the same vein, the Le Tourneau factory at Rydalmere, opened in July 1941, churned out large numbers of earthmoving equipment (mostly Carryall Scoops), that also made a major contribution to the ability of the Americans and Australians to build airfields in the S.W. Pacific during WW2.

[facthunter]

After Pearl Harbour the Jap armed forces leader said" I fear we have awakened a sleeping tiger" Long term they knew they couldn't match the US Industry Production capacity They also needed rubber and oil.. They called their action the South East Asia Co- Prosperity something or other. They'd invaded Korea and China quite a while before and expected India to come- across and support the liberation of India from the Poms. There were several Indian Squadrons in the Luftwaffe.. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

...They also needed rubber and oil.. They called their action the South East Asia Co- Prosperity something or other. They'd invaded Korea and China quite a while before and expected India to come- across and support the liberation of India from the Poms...

When, in the late 1950s, Japan decided to build the bullet train in time for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, it was actually a return to a pre-war project. The Shinkansen network was originally meant to go under the sea to Korea, south through China and on to India.

[onetrack]

I found a rare Wartime ad for the W&J-built Caterpillar grader, from the Bulletin, dated July 21, 1943.

 

It was rare to see this equipment advertised during WW2, because all Caterpillar Grader production in that period went directly to the Military.

 

So, I expect the ad was probably allowed through as part of the Australian Govts, "Defence of Australia", morale-boosting programmes.